Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Epic Rumors - The Feral Child (1989, Bok Du)

Last year our buds over at Down Underground blog exposed us to the smashing 1986 debut ep from Epic Rumors, a San Jose, CA act who straddled the not-so barbed wire fence between commercially viable rock...and that there stuff on the left of the radio dial. Said ep was a helluva listen, offering bristling, forward thinking tunes bejeweled with Big Country and Cult style guitars leads and kinetic fervor to burn.

Three years on, ER got around to making a full length, specifically the one I have in store for you today. In the interim, this quartet curbed their enthusiasm a pinch, thankfully retaining much of their initial melodic punch, conveyed best on "The Procession," "At the Edge of Heaven" and "Only Love." Closing things out with a lofty instrumental doesn't work to their advantage however. If you're anything like me, you might detect more than a few opaquely veiled themes lending themselves to moral allegory here, albeit nothing alienating. RIYL past W/O entries entailing the Rhythm Corps, Then Jerico, and The Love In.

PS: I've got a YouTube clip for you of a reunited Epic Rumors covering SVT's power pop classic "Heart of Stone."

Was just doing some reading, and came across a band called The Siddeleys. Apparently they were C-86/jangle pop guys. Do you have them lurking in your collection somewhere? Jangle pop is my lifeblood...